Speech #960205033

Speaker. at the time this bill came up on the floor of the House of Representatives. I spoke in favor of it and strongly supported it. I think that it is important that we have an orderly and uniform refugee policy in the United States. I think it is also vitally important that the U.S. Government have a program of reimbursing the State governments for the costs of the Federal program which they have brought into effect. Most of us will agree that it is important that when there are refugees who can lose their lives because of difficulties. political programs overseas. that the United States should be a refuge for them. But it is important that that policy be carried out in such an orderly fashion that we can take care of those refugees who come to our shores and that we do not have so many that we cant handle them without damage to our own people. I feel that the legislative veto. which we had built into the act on the floor of the House of Representatives when the bill passed a month or so ago. was important for us. because Congress had a role in the number of refugees who were to come at a given time. Under this legislation. the President is authorized to admit 50.000 refugees each year. but can increase that number to any figure that he desires to. Now. it is true there is consultation with the Congress that is now provided in the legislation. but actually. the Congress can do nothing about it in the final analysis if the President decides against them. I feel that that is giving up the authority of the House of Representatives to provide for our communities the kind of orderly refugee handling that they need and that is required for them. In some of the communities in California as high as 25 percent of the students in schools at the present time cannot speak or read the English language. We have had such an influx in some of our communities that there is a welfare problem. school problem. and many other problems that are beyond the local officials coping with. That is why it is important that we have this bill. but with a legislative veto. I frankly hope that we can get that legislative veto back in the legislation so that Congress can play a role and so that we can control the number of refugees coming to our shores each year.